Walking Tour: Monitoring Invasive Asian Hornets: From Human Eyes to AI

The invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) has spread rapidly across parts of Europe and East Asia over the past two decades, with significant impacts on beekeeping, agriculture, and biodiversity. These hornets prey on a wide range of native pollinators and actively target honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies, disrupting their foraging activity. Although efforts have been made to contain the invasion, success has been limited—largely due to the difficulty of detecting new incursions at an early stage.

Join Dr. Thomas O’Shea-Wheller on this guided walk and talk, where he will outline recent research using AI to tackle this challenge, highlight ongoing work to prevent the hornet’s establishment in the UK, and explain how the public can play a vital role in supporting long-term exclusion strategies.

Meeting and start point at Exeter Phoenix.